THE KENTUCKY POST TRAUMA RESPONSE TEAM - DEVELOPMENT OF A STATEWIDE CRISIS RESPONSE CAPABILITY

The history, development, and implementation of a statewide post traum a response capability are described in this article. The development o f the Kentucky Post Trauma Response Team involved organizing resources from across the state to participate in the development and staffing of the Team. The mission of the Team is to provide services during and immediately after a disaster to victims, other impacted community res idents, and emergency services personnel. A comprehensive development process was utilized to produce the Team's operations protocol. The mo del that emerged was of a centrally coordinated Team with clearly defi ned goals, procedures, roles, and intervention methodologies. Operatio ns of the Team to this point in time are described, and advantages and disadvantages of the Team's design are explored. The need to further establish the Team's place within the state government structure is di scussed.